wenbmete

What if one morning you woke up with no memories? 

What if all you had was a video message you left for yourself, warning you that you were in grave danger? 

What if the only way to survive was in discovering what you forgot? 

And what if your biggest enemy was yourself? 

**

"There is a bug. It allows unmitigated access to the users' consciousness. You're the only one who knows. You must stop the release. You must stop them." 

That was the primal directive. Min needed time to understand, to accept. But time was the one thing he didn't have. 

He woke up with no memories. He only had the one video message he left himself to work with. The video told him he was a beta tester of Gaia, and he had discovered a bug that could very well be intentional. 

What he was asking of himself was to be a hero. But was that what he wanted? Was that really him in the video? 

If it was him, why go through all that trouble? Why did he delete all of his memories himself? 

Who were the people helping him from the shadows? Were they friends? Or, were they something else entirely? 

Who were those that were after him? Were they all related to Gaia? Or were there other secrets too? 

School was the perfect refuge. Friendless and unremarkable, he couldn't be hidden better. But with less than three months to graduation, he was running out of time...

osmosis

The old library was what it was called now. Twenty seven years ago, it was Roza's athenaeum. At a time when the academy was adopting Furtiv's Holography into its infrastructure, a distant cousin of the principal made a large donation. Her only request, having a building dedicated to transitions of the ages. Thus came to be, Roza's athenaeum. 


 With concern for the building being so limited, its current state was inevitable. 


 The silver lining was that it was perfect for Min as it was. 


 The bunk was a simple camping tent, with a futon inside. And a simple looking node by the side. Min knew to not be fooled. The node was undoubtedly a powerful terminal. 


 As he neared the tent, a screen popped up in front of the entrance. The same white circle was in the middle of the screen. After he sat down, the electronic voice greeted him. 


 He nodded. It seemed he could be seen. 


 "First, I have the bug. We're on a virtual server created for just this. We're secure on here. Now, let's get those questions out of the way." 


 He froze. They certainly needed the questions out of the way. 


 "Show me what we've prepared," he asked after a long while. 


 A Black Gate opened up. Commands were entered. Actions completed. And he had to only watch. 


 -: initialising port 57 on server dzr37# …


 "That's the bug. Encrypted. Safe. Ready. Fire is the deploy method. That's all you need." 


 The cold voice felt warm and close. He smiled. 


 There was no answer. He knew he needed to be more direct. More particular. 


 There was silence again, but this was different. He knew he had to wait. 


 "We grew up together," came the answer. 


 The voice sounded unfeeling, but he heard the quiver. 


 "We were at the same orphanage. You were selected. You became a Topher Grace. I stayed invisible. We're partners." 


 "We are inseparable," he finished for Men. "And we can never meet." 


 He fell quiet. The pieces were starting to fall into place. Even if it was too much, he couldn't stop now. 


 "She's a Topher Grace too. Selected the same year as you." 


 He was stunned. It was obvious, and yet had been beyond his expectations. 


 "Why then was I warning myself to be wary of her," he asked. 


 "I don't know," came the answer. "I am not aware of the plan." 


 "As I don't need to be aware of the preparations," he said. 


 "So, the facts. I need to be wary of Sia. I need to be wary of Topher Grace. I have you. We have the bug. Why is it important?" 


 "Yes. Nor do I know. We have to stop them." 


 He grinned as the answer was yes. He had one last question before they got started. 


 "We have several students ids in the academy. You helped set them up. We're burning one with every step." 


 "The second open Beta release is in three weeks." 


 "That's the first target. We need every detail." 


 The cold voice was filled with certainty.


B-13